UPDATE: Still without a doctor

My doctor quit her private practice in Sept. She gave me enough pain pills to last about 6 months. I have not been able to find another doctor, and I am really getting worried.

I am afraid that since I have been taking 8 lortabs a day, that it is not going to be easy to just quit. I have quit taking pain meds before, but that was when I was on 3 darvocets a day for months. Lortabs are a little different.

I am in the Oklahoma city area, and I cant seem to find a doctor. I have not given up just yet, but time is running out.

I really dread laying in bed all day again. I have bad days already, but having to go back to bed like I did before I got on these pills was pointless. At least on them, I had somewhat of a life. No they never took away all the pain, but I could at least do some housework, if I paced myself.

Kat:
I live in the OKC metro area. I am right in the middle of the state. I have heard from my last doctors nurse, that she had patients from Kansas. That tells me that they also have a hard time finding someone to treat them in Kansas. I just hope that something will come up soon!

Thanks for the link "outofstep". I will try to do more research with that list of doctors in OKC. I no the OU one will probably not help. They are the reason I found my last doctor. They told me that they did not believe that fibromyalgia was that bad! That was in 2005.

I have gone to one doctor this week. She refered me to 4, and they all said the same thing, they didnt treat fibromyalgia. I have called several.

My biggest problem is that I just do NOT have the money to go to doctors, just to find out that cannot help me. I have no insurance what so ever. We are living on my husbands SSDI, and that isnt paying the bills. His SSDI is $50 a month too much for me to get medicaid, and most medicaid doctors wont give pain meds.

Oklahoma is still back woods. They are more worried about addiction, than the fact that there are those out there that are never going to get cured, and need pain meds to live. (I am suprised that our state capital doesnt still have out houses)! Sorry, but they dont really care about pain here. Every free clinic I have been to has a sign on the front door that says that they cannot prescribe narcotic pain meds as per state law!

Its the abusers that make it so hard for those of us that are in real honest to God pain. It just isnt right.

Thanks again for the link. I will go through each one, and call them. Hopefully I can afford one, and they will treat me.

Sorry to hear that you went through that! That must have been very scary.

I know when I am down to my last pill, I will have to try a detox place, and its going to kill me. I am more worried about my diabetes. When my pain is up, so are my blood sugars. I have been a type 1 for 38 years now. Any stress makes it hard to control my sugars.

I just turned 50 last month, and honestly feel lucky to have lived this long. On the other hand, I wish my first doctor was right. He said I would never see 30. He was wrong. I am a fighter, but honestly if I have to go back to bed, and have no life at all what is the point! Sorry to sound so negative, but right now, I am negative, but not going to give up just yet. I am very scared right now, and just PRAY that I can find a doctor like I did the last one. That is actually how I found her, I told God that he was the only one who knew how bad I was hurting, and he needed to either heal me, or guide me in the right direction. It worked. I just hope I still have some favors with him, and he will bless me again!

I live in southwest Ok. I have no insurance at this time and have FM. Do you know of O-EPIC ins provided by the state. My dr gave me the info and they cover individuals who can't be covered by their employees. I'm not abt covering you if you don't work at all. I was on it for a yr but I dropped it because I messed up on the income info and they wanted to charge me $50 a month. I'm going to get back on it again so I can go to another endo dr in Okc. It's supposed to be for low income people,which I am,so I thought 50 was too much for me,and it still is. There is also another state ins that I read abt in the paper,it's new. I don't remember the name but maybe if you call the DHS they can give you the info. As soon as I find the info again,I'm going to check it out.
Good luck to you and let me know what you find out.

From your previous dr. Stating that you have chronic pain from fm,and that you have never had problems with taking your meds correctly would help.

I know how hard it is to find a dr, i have a cfids dr in Houston I see every 3 months. However,she is isn't my pcp. I called no less than 4 drs around trying to get a family pcp. When I said fiber/cfids they all said. No!

Thankfully my cfids dr in Houston is great about managing my pain and anxiety. How far away can you travel to see a dr? I have some good dr websites that might be helpful.and like me if you see your pain dr every 3 or 4 months you might be able to travel 4 times a year if you have to. Keep in touch and let us know if you find a dr.

I was driving 70 miles one way to my other doctor, that quit her private practice. That was killing me, on top of the $100 each visit cost.

I do have a copy of my chart from my last doctor, but the one I went to see last week, didnt even want to see it. She had her mind made up from the get-go that she wanted me out of there.

Since my hubby tired to kill himself and now has brain damage, we are both disabled. I have not worked enough to recieve any kind of disability at all. His SSDI is only $50 a month too much for me to get medicaid. How about that! 38 years of type 1 diabetes, a stroke, and numerous other health issues are not enough for me to get medicaid. Oh if I could work about a year and a half, I would get my SSDI, and medicare! I cant even take care of my house, let alone work outside the home.

I know the stress of my hubbys brain damage and him being bipolar, then all my health issues, plus I have to deal with all the bills, ect, this is all just too much for one to handle. Why am I still here. Well my grandbabies, and my cats are the reason. Believe it or not, they are what I live for. I am finding that I have days that they dont even keep me motivated to keep going.

Sorry to sound so negative, but I am really getting worried. Ok if I have to go into detox, fine. But after that what do I have left. All day in bed, my blood sugars staying high all the time, and having to still deal with my husband.

If any one of you prays, please pray and agree with me that God will guide me to the right doctor.

Well I just spent the day calling many doctors here in the OKC area. No luck.

I have heard excuses from "we dont treat fibromyalgia with pain meds". Or We only do acupuncture for fibro. Also if you dont have a referal, we cant see you, and even then, we dont think fibro is bad enough to give pain meds.

The problem with the acupuncture is that it costs money that I dont have. I heard they wanted $175.00, two times a month. I dont have that kind of money, or I would love to give it a try.
I know I called at least 23 doctors and or clinics, that claim to be pain managment clinics. I just cannot believe this state.

I did use the link that someone posted on here with doctors listed. They are the ones that I called.

I do know that right now, I am piss*d off at all of those who misuse pain meds for doing this to people like us.

I havent not given up just yet, but its really looking bad right now. I am covered about another month, and after that, well my life is overwith as I know it now. Not that it is that great now, but at least I can get out of bed.

Ok, I tried pain managment clinics, and doctors that listed fibromyalgia. Any other suggestions?

I did try again yesterday to call some, and still no luck.

I have been trying for over 6 months, and it just seems that I am about to hit a road block, very hard, very fast.

I dont want to live the rest of my life in the bed again, and not be able to do anything. What is the point!

If anyone of you here prays, please pray for me. God himself knows of my pain! I just cant see that he would want me to continue. Besides, how can I do his work, if I am in bed all day. I cant even use the phone now with out pain. Even on my pain meds, it hurts to hold the phone for any length of time.

Well I called another doctor that was listed from another person on this board today. They said they can see me in about 2 weeks. This doctor was listed on here as someones doctor, and that they did treat them, so I am hopeing that this doctor is going to be the right one.

I had got to thinking about calling and haveing the receptionist telling me that the doctor doesnt treat fibro with pain meds. Well the doctor might not think the same way. I might get a different answer from the doctor. While I just dont have the money to blow on finding out that they wont help me, I have no choice. I am going to have to spend the money to find out from the doctors point of view.

I have also put in a call to 2 other doctors and hope to get an appt with them soon. I am going to the first one, and hope that is the one that is going to help me, if not at least I will have 2 others to try before the monthly meds run out.

I really hate to do that, but like I said, I need to try, and hopefully one of them will work out. So the first doctor that will help me wins me as a new patient! LOL. Hopefully I can cancel the other appts without them makeing me pay something.

I hope this makes sense. I have been talking backwards all day long!

I will keep everyone posted that has been rooting for me. I really do appreciate the support, as well as need it.

I too am in OKC and having a horrible time finding a doctor. Just like you, they treat fibro with everything except what helps. I was on pain meds when they told me they thought I had fibro, then dropped my pain meds that helped immediately! Withdrawal wasnt bad because im not addicted, they were pain relief, thats all. I am still on a pain med that doesn't work at all! No one will listen! My frustration and pain level has reached a level I can't describe. What doc did you find? Or the person in Houston, I'll drive, who helps?! I've been trying all their recommendations, lyrica, nuerotin, etc. NO HELP! I am alone, have to work. My body is screaming all day in pain! Any help or answers would be much appreciated.

I saw your posts to Julie, I too am looking for a doc anywhere that treats fibro, am in OKC but will drive. I have back problems too, but as soon as they decided fibro they dropped my meds, everything they're giving me now doesn't work, and they won't listen. Even the medrol they gave me that worked, they won't give me now! They said I was given medrol for 7 days as a "trial" to figure out what helped. So cruel! I am so miserable! And get this! Both the docs said it was all in my head! I want to scream and cry! I want them to live a day in my shoes and see what they think of pain management after that. I pray every day for any help, a miracle cure, anything! I feel beaten down and abandoned. I am happy to give my email or phone number, but am new to this site and don't know how to do it discreetly. For anyone that reads this, any advice or help would be so appreciated.

I'm in a desperate search for a good fibro doc that will listen to me and treat me too! I have tricare ins.. can only find 4 rheum docs in okc that take it and NO one can see me for 4 months and other are not taking new patients and none of them are good anyways... william shnitz is a TERRIBLE DOC!!!!!!
Please let me know if anyone knows of a good doc for fibro anywhere in oklahoma!